


Sometimes, when a joke goes too far...

by ZouisMalinsonForever (loving_1D_louiszaynniallharryliam)



Category: One Direction (Band)
Genre: Claustrophobia, Hospitalization, Other, Stuck in a Lift
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-10-26
Updated: 2014-10-29
Packaged: 2018-02-22 12:38:36
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 2,165
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2508125
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/loving_1D_louiszaynniallharryliam/pseuds/ZouisMalinsonForever
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>When a joke goes too far, secrets are revealed, and one bandmate will never be the same...</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Set after the X-Factor tour~  
> Louis-centric  
> Hope you guys like it!

The boys had just finished the X-Factor tour today. They would stay in the city for a while before going back to their own home.

Harry had planned a joke on Louis, with the help of the others.

As they shot up the hotel in a lift, Harry winked at Zayn, who winked at Liam, who winked at Niall.

The joke was on.

When they got to their floor, the four of them rushed out and closed the lift doors without waiting for Louis, leaving him alone in there.

However, what the four of them didn’t know was that Louis was extremely claustrophobic, due to a childhood nightmare. His claustrophobia wasn’t triggered easily, but when it did… well, you could say that there were severe consequences. And right now, it was definitely triggered.

Louis scrambled to the corner and curled up into a ball, his whole body trembling. He didn’t know what had happened just now, he only knew that the lift was rather small and he was trapped in there. Alone.

Coincidentally, the lift that Louis was in suddenly malfunctioned and jerked to a stop. Meaning that Louis wouldn’t be getting out of that lift for a while. That thought was enough to scare Louis.

The memories came flooding back full force. Without meaning to, he found that his mind was recalling a bad memory from his childhood. He tried holding his head, muttering “No, no, no…” as it played in his mind.

_“Get inside now, Louis!”_

_“Mum?”_

_“Listen to me, Lou. Whatever happens, do not make a sound, okay? Me and your mum love you.”_

_“Dad? What’s happening?”_

_“You don’t need to know, Louis. Now, hurry up and get inside the closet!”_

_Hiding in the closet, he peeked out from a small hole. He could see his father, and a heavyset man with a moustache yelling at him. Suddenly, the stranger took out a gun, and fired it at his dad._

_Louis tried not to scream as his father fell to the ground, blood slowly spilling out. Where was his mother? Was she safe?_

_The man bent over his father, checking for a pulse. When there were none, he smiled cruelly and walked away._

_Louis thought that the man had gone, so he let himself out of the closet, crawled over to his dead father’s body, and screamed. Unfortunately, he wasn’t, and he came running back. When he saw the small boy knelt over the dead body, he grinned, and took out his gun, intending to kill him too._

_Louis looked over his shoulder, and saw the gun pointed at him. He sobbed, and covered his father’s body with his own._

_Luckily, Louis’s mother had called the police, and they came right in the nick of time. When the man heard the sirens, his hand faltered, and he shot Louis in the stomach instead of his head._

_Louis could only feel unbearable pain, and he blacked out._

Louis couldn’t breathe as the memories awakened. His breathing got more laboured, his lips turned blue, and he started struggling for air.

Suddenly, the lift doors opened and a man rushed in. He tried to touch Louis, but instead Louis flinched and screamed. It was so full of pain, so heartbreaking that the man felt his own heart break in two.

“Louis, Louis, come back.” He dimly heard a familiar voice say. He opened his eyes, and saw that it was none other than Simon Cowell. As he struggled to breathe, he saw Simon panicking.

“Quick, get this boy to the hospital!” Louis could only registered the sentence before he fainted.

Simon was definitely panicking now, when he saw the boy go limp in his arms. “He isn’t breathing!”

The paramedics lifted the limp boy onto a stretcher and put an oxygen mask over his face, to help him breathe. Then, the ambulance rushed off to the hospital.

After Simon calmed down, he went to see the others. Instead of seeing them worried and panicking, like he just was, he saw them happily munching on chips and playing Fifa. He felt his anger boil up.

“What exactly do you think you guys are doing?”

“Um… we’re relaxing?” Liam answered hesitantly. All of the boys were nervous. They had never seen Simon that angry before.

“Relaxing, huh! Does killing your bandmate count as relaxing?”

“Wait, what? We would never do anything like that!” Harry burst out.

“Oh, so care to explain why your bandmate is now in the hospital?” Simon asked sarcastically.

“Impossible! All of us are here!” Niall exclaimed.

“Oh, so does the name Louis Tomlinson ring a bell?” Simon asked icily.

“Oh god, Louis! Is he alright?” Zayn immediately asked frantically.

“Well, after that rather horrid trick you guys pulled, he should be okay, just stuck in the hospital unconscious now.” Simon said, and enjoyed watching their faces go white.

"I still can't believe it. Louis, in the hospital? We never did anything!" Harry said.

"Oh really? Does trapping your bandmate in a lift count?" Simon asked.

"It was just meant to be a joke!" Zayn protested.

"Sometimes, when you take a joke way too far, that's what you get. Louis is claustrophobic." Simon sighed. 

"Louis is... claustrophobic?" Liam whispered, stunned.

"Yes, he most certainly is. In the meantime, I-"

Simon's phone chimed. As he checked the message from the hospital, he noticed the grief-stricken looks exchanged between the four of them.

_Mr. Tomlinson has arrived at the hospital._

After typing out a quick reply, he turned his attention back to the four worried boys in front of him.

"Is... is he alright?" Niall asked timidly.

Simon softened a little bit at their anxious faces. "He has just arrived at the hospital. Why don't we go and visit him?"

The boys didn't reply, just bundled themselves in Simon's car and went to the hospital 

After a while, they arrived. The boys didn't wait, just ran into the hospital.

"Excuse me, is Louis Tomlinson here?" Harry asked frantically.

"Louis Tomlinson... yeah, he's here." The nurse at the counter said.

"Can we see him?" Harry pleaded.

"Sure, but he's still unconscious, love." The nurse said.

"It doesn't matter." Harry said.

"Okay, then he's in the fifth floor, room 27." The nurse relented.

"Thank you so much." Niall thanked her and hurried to catch up with his bandmates.

Once they arrived at Louis's room, they were at a loss for words.

Louis was lying on the bed. He looked so small, so vulnerable, that none of them knew what to say. He looked like he was only sixteen, a boy who knew nothing of the cruel and harsh reality. A breathing tube was stuck in his mouth, presumably to help him breathe. There were tear tracks on his face. Surprisingly, bandages were wrapped around his wrists.

"They're afraid that Louis might commit suicide, since when he was rescued, he was gripping his wrists so tight that blood flow almost stopped. And that can be fatal." A voice sounded from the door.

Simon walked in, his eyes filled with sadness.

 Harry sniffed. "Louis, please, wake up. We're so, so sorry."

Glancing at the four boys, Simon saw that they all had identical expressions of guilt and sadness.

Suddenly, Louis's blue eyes flew open, filled with panic. He choked, and his hands went to his breathing tube, clawing at it.

Nurses pushed the five of them out of the room kindly but firmly. They watched helplessly as Louis started crying profusely and screaming heartbreakingly. 

At last, three nurses restrained him back on the bed and a doctor injected some milky white liquid into his arm. His body went limp and his eyes rolled back into his head.

"Are you Mr. Tomlinson's family?" The doctor that had just come out of his room asked.

"Yeah, we are." Simon answered.

"Well, Mr. Tomlinson's claustrophobia seems to be triggered by a rather traumatic experience. We would like to keep him in the hospital for 72 hours to ensure that he doesn't commit suicide. Is that okay?" 

"Of course, anything for Louis." Niall quickly said.

 "Right, then he should be waking up anytime."

"Thank you." Liam said and followed his bandmates back into Louis's room.

The doctor was right in his prediction. Louis did wake up in a few minutes, his blue eyes starting to fill with panic again.

"Louis, Lou, it's just us." Zayn said.

"Harry? Zayn? Liam? Niall? Uncle Simon?" Louis asked uncertainly and timidly.

"Oh, Lou, we're so, so sorry!" Harry burst into tears.

 "I, I..." As Louis started to remember what just happened, he started trembling when he recalled the horrific memory.

"Lou, Lou, you're okay." Simon hurriedly soothed the boy, who looked very scared.

"Louis, are you okay?" Liam asked worriedly.

 "I don't know." Louis replied.

"Physically, or mentally okay?" Niall asked.

"Physically okay. Mentally... I don't think so." Louis said.

"It's okay, Lou." Harry reassured him.

"Okay." Louis echoed.

After 3 long days, the hospital finally released Louis. Although he was physically fine, he was still a bit shaken up and his claustrophobia was starting to get out of hand.

The boys were still worried about him, since he refused to tell them why he had claustrophobia, and it was flaring up constantly right now. Whenever one of those episodes happened, it took quite a while to get their Louis back. Besides, Louis wasn't himself now. He smiled a lot less and he became a lot more quiet.

Even though they didn't know how to solve the problem, they would always help Louis get through it.


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter talks about Louis's childhood nightmare. If you're easily triggered, I definitely do not recommend this to you.  
> WARNING: scenes of violence!!

_"No! Please, no!"_

"Louis, Lou, wake up." Zayn begged. It was the third time in a  _week_ already. 

"Zayn?" Louis blinked open his eyes and looked around frantically until his eyes fell onto Zayn.

"Lou, you can't keep going on like this." Harry suddenly appeared out of nowhere.

"I... I want to it to stop. The nightmares." Louis said sadly.

"Then tell us what happened, Lou." Zayn said.

"Really?" Louis paled.

"Really. If you want to get better, Lou, we'll help you, of course, but you've got to tell us what happened." Harry confirmed.

"'Kay. Can you wake up Liam and Niall?" Louis asked quietly. He was afraid that if they knew the truth, they'd walk away without a second glance.

But he wanted the nightmares to stop so badly.

"Okay, Lou. Meet us in the living room." Louis went to change, while Harry and Zayn woke up Liam and Niall.

A few minutes later, they were all sitting in the living room, either on the sofa or on a chair, in Louis's case.

Louis was biting the bottom of lip nervously, Harry and Liam were tense, Zayn was staring at Louis, while Niall was just himself.

"Lou?" Liam prompted him.

"Okay." Louis muttered to himself. He drew in a breath, then he started speaking.

"When I was um... about three? My father worked in the FBI a long time ago, but he made a few powerful enemies. On that day, I was playing in the living when someone started hammering at the door. My mother forced me inside the closet, then hid herself, while my father went to confront the man at the door. Once the man got in, he started shouting at my father, and they argued. Suddenly..." Louis sucked in a breath.

"Hey, Lou, it's okay if you don't want to tell us now." Niall said.

"No, I have to." Readying himself, Louis continued with his story.

"Suddenly, he... he took out a gun and shot my father right in the head. He died a few minutes later. I saw the whole process through a small crack in the closet. Then, the man was gone. Or so I thought." 

"I was so naive at that time. I thought that he was gone, so I crawled out of the closet and I screamed. The man came back and he wanted to shoot me. Luckily, my mother called the police and he shot my stomach instead. If he shot my head..." Louis's tears were coming now.

"When I woke up, I was in the hospital, and I could remember when my mother told me that my father was dead. The man is now in prison. Turns out that he held a personal grudge towards my father and he had his revenge."

"Ever since, I've had claustrophobia, 'cause every time I get into an enclosed space alone, I start to remember what happened."

The four boys had tears in their eyes when Lou finished. Harry went over and enfolded Louis in a tight hug.

"God, Lou, we're so, so sorry for making fun at you when you had this horrible nightmare inside you and we're so, so sorry."

"'S okay now, Harry." Louis whispered.

After that, there weren't any incidents anymore, except for a few times when there were too many fans surrounding them. But other than that, Louis was okay, and as long as Louis was okay, the others were too.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks for all your comments and leave kudos!!! :)

**Author's Note:**

> Comment and leave kudos!!! XDXD


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